


Achievement Huntress

by ExactChase



Category: RWBY, Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: RWBY as Rooster Teeth, Red vs Blue - Freeform, achievement hunter au, youtube au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 10:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10534695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExactChase/pseuds/ExactChase
Summary: Five years after Taiyang began his own web company, Rooster Teeth, his youngest daughter decided to create a new branch; Achievement Hunter.





	1. First Day Of My Life

“Hey.” Ruby groaned and rolled over in her bed as someone continually poked her. “Hey.” The voice said again. Ruby lightly swatted at the hand and her eyes drifted open, snapping to her alarm clock. It was three AM. The girl flipped over in her bed with a grunt, facing the tall, blonde man with a glare.  
“What?!” She angrily groaned. The man crouched in front of her bed. This was the first time in a while Ruby had really spoken to her father. He had some crappy job at a telemarketing company and that caused him to always be working. He got home at eleven, after Ruby had gone to sleep, and left at five, long before Ruby got up. She mainly only really saw him on weekends, but it was a Friday, and he would have to be at work in three short hours.  
“Remember how you said you want to be in the first movie I made?” He asked, crossing his arms and resting them on the edge of her bed for balance. Ruby raised an eyebrow.  
“Yeah.” She said. “Like ten years ago.” Taiyang rolled his eyes.  
“Would you still wanna do that?” He asked. Ruby shrugged and pulled her blanket over her shoulder, balling up her legs.  
“Yeah. Sure.” She told him, beginning to drift off to sleep. He poked her forehead and she giggled.  
“Then I need you to get up.” He told her, standing and yanking the blanket off of her.  
“But, I have a presentation in the morning!” She whined. Taiyang looked down at her.  
“Do you really?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “Because I don't recall your mother telling me anything about you preparing for a presentation when you got home.” Ruby groaned and swung her legs off the bed. She suddenly threw her arms in the air.  
“Okay, maybe I lied!” She declared. “But I do have school tomorrow.”  
“One line.” He told her. Ruby ran her index finger and thumb over her eyes, slowly pushing herself off of her bed and stretching. Taiyang looked away as her bare stomach was exposed in the process, throwing a hand over his eyes. “I don't wanna see that!”  
“At least I'm wearing a shirt!” She kiddingly told him. He just shook his head.  
“You are your mother’s daughter.” He said, stepping out of the small, dark bedroom.  
“That would be true.” She said, grinning.  
The house the small family lived in wasn't very big, with two bedrooms, and a basement that they treated as Yang’s room. The kitchen, dining room and living room were all that existed of the first floor, and none were very big. There was, unfortunately one bathroom for the entire family to share, making life extremely difficult for someone who really had to pee while someone else was in the shower. The basement wasn't very big either, being the same size as Ruby’s room. The house was so small that the front door was in the living room. When one entered, they could walk in a straight line for a few seconds, and then reach the kitchen. In the kitchen was a door that led to the basement, adjacent the door was the small pantry, which Yang always emptied upon returning home from school. The place was listed as a house, but was definitely an apartment compared to all the other houses in the neighborhood.  
The Xiao-Long family had lived in that small “house” for the entire life of the youngest child, and most of the oldest’s. This meant that they had met their neighbors on several occasions of course. Ruby and Yang went to the same schools as the Schnees and Belladonnas. Taiyang wasn't a fan of Jacques Schnee, but unfortunately had to put up with the man because Ruby and Yang were friends with his daughter; Weiss. Tai did like Ghira Belladonna however, he was a nice man always willing to help others.  
Ruby slowly followed her father down the stairs, and into the living room, where she could see that he had his laptop set up with a microphone plugged seated next to it. Her father was using his old camera’s boom mic as the microphone for whatever it was she was doing.  
“I just need you to say this…” he handed her a sticky note. “Into the mic. Sound annoyed.” Ruby sighed.  
“It won't be hard.” She took a seat on the couch and Taiyang held the mic towards her mouth. He tapped the record button and Ruby read the words that were hastily written on the sticky note. “Yeah, I think somebody owes me the last two minutes of my life span.” Taiyang smiled happily and set the mic down, turning off the camera.  
“Thank you.” He told her. “You can go back to bed now.” She nodded and stood.  
“What’s that for?” She asked. He smiled again.  
“You’ll see.” He told her. She yawned.  
“This doesn't have anything to do with that stupid website You, Oobleck and Uncle Qrow made, does it?” She asked. “What's it called again?”  
“Drunk Gamers.” Taiyang indignantly said.  
“Good luck with that.” Ruby called back, beginning her ascent back up the stairs.  
[Shift]  
It had been a few weeks since Ruby had recorded her line for her father’s project. She had found out that it was for a trailer for something called, “Red Vs Blue”. It was apparently about some kind of civil war in Halo or something. She wasn't sure. What she did know was that he had taken down his website, Red vs Blue along with it. In the trailer, Ruby had played some red soldier, and her Uncle Qrow had played the orange soldier next to her.  
Ruby’s music blared in her headphones as she slowly walked home from her bus stop. Her older sister was not too far behind her, speaking with Weiss and Blake about whatever it was they talked about when she had her headphones on. It was a Friday and Ruby knew that it was her father’s day off, so needless to say, she was eager to get home. The girl would have run, but she was weighed down by her bag full of books. Ruby swung the front door open, turned off her music, and threw her bag down next to the door. When Ruby turned back to the living room, she was surprised to see that her father was joined by her history and gym teachers; Oobleck and Port, as well as her uncle. She knew that her father was good friends with the teachers, but did not expect either to be at her house when she got home. She supposed that they arrived home before her because she rode the bus and they drove, but they couldn't have gotten there much earlier than she had.  
“Hi.” Ruby awkwardly said, quickly moving into the kitchen and reemerging with half of a granola bar sticking out of her mouth. In the short amount of time that Ruby had been in the kitchen, Yang had come through the front door, and was just as shocked as Ruby was to see the two teachers there.  
“Well, this is super awkward!” Yang proclaimed before bolting past Ruby and down to her room. Taiyang watched his eldest disappear into the basement and his friends both handed him and Qrow a bit of cash. Ruby simply raised an eyebrow.  
“I told you guys that it was stupid to bet against Tai.” Qrow said. “No one knows his girls better than he does.”  
“It's not about personality.” The aforementioned father said. “It's about not being a shitty parent!” Ruby removed the granola bar from her mouth.  
“And you’d know what about that?” Ruby joked. Her father’s friends froze, their eyes darting between daughter and father. Taiyang burst out into laughter.  
“That is definitely my child.” He told his friends, who were now nervously laughing. Ruby glanced at the TV that the men were all huddled around. They were playing Halo, just as they had the many other times that Qrow had showed up. Once Taiyang straightened up, he turned back to Ruby.  
“Settle something for us, will you?” He asked. Ruby nodded. “The ‘Warthog’; looks more like a puma than a pig.” Ruby shrugged.  
“It's a Jeep.” She told her father, making a few steps towards the stairs. He began quietly grumbling something about a puma as she took this opportunity to bolt up to her room.  
[Shift]  
“Goddammit!” Yang’s voice traveled in such a small house, especially when she yelled. She was playing some game she liked. Ruby always wondered why Yang liked that game so much, as she also seemed so mad when she played it. Her father’s voice shouted next.  
“Please no yelling!”  
“Sorry!”  
Ruby rolled her eyes, and her bedroom door swung open. In the doorway stood her father, grinning. She didn't like it when he grinned like that. It meant he had something for her to do, usually chores. The blonde man leaned against the doorway as she warily eyed him.  
“I have something I need you to do.” He told her. She raised an eyebrow.  
“What?”  
“Remember when I had you do that line for that trailer?” She nodded. “Well, we’re going to be recording the lines for the first episode and I was wondering if you wanted to play the same character?” Ruby relaxed, thankful that she didn't have to clean or anything like that.  
“Sure!” She happily said.  
[Shift]  
Ruby quickly flipped through the script that her father had presumably taken time to write with a look of shock on her face.  
“I can't say these things!” She said.  
“You have my permission.” Taiyang told her. She subtly shook her head.  
“What about Mom?” She asked. “If she sees this and hears my voice saying… the F-Word, we’re both dead!” Taiyang scratched his head.  
“Shit.” He said. “I— I didn't think about that. Just substitute the words for other things.” Ruby relaxed again and sat up so that she could be at face level with her mic. Her father had gone as bought two new microphones, complete with stands and pop filters. The whole nine yards.  
“Tell us when.” Qrow told Tai. He was seated next to Ruby, a microphone in his face as well.  
“Alright.” Tai pointed at Ruby and the two began.  
“Hey.” Ruby said.  
“Yeah?” Qrow answered.  
“You ever wonder why we’re here?”


	2. Moving On Is Hard To Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We skim along a few years, as Taiyang continues his hit webseries and Ruby deals with the pressures of being famous and a socially awkward teen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, but Ruby is modeled after Geoff, even if she plays Simmons.

Ruby listened in on multiple conversations as she heard her classmates talking about Red Vs Blue. None of them knew she starred in it, but she'd rather not have that kind of attention. Her father’s silly little show had attracted a lot of attention from those that played Halo themselves, and while Ruby was happy that her father was happy, she didn't know if she wanted herself going any further than just a voice. Not even her friends knew that her voice was in the show, but they had all seen it. Ruby was very grateful that her father hadn't put in any credits yet, but she knew that he would once it was over. After all, he had only planned for a few, short episodes.  
[Shift]  
Those “few” episodes Taiyang had planned had extended to a nineteen episode season—maybe even two. Ruby would have been lying were she to say that she didn't like recording her lines for RvB, but she was still uncomfortable with the attention it could potentially bring her, especially if it became as big as her father hoped it would. The man had even changed the URL for his website, mainly because no one wanted anything to do with something with “drunk” in the title. So, Taiyang changed it to Rooster Teeth.  
“Why Rooster Teeth?” Ruby had asked.  
“Because it's a euphemism for cock bite.” Taiyang bluntly said. Summer had been so shocked that the man would say something like that at the dinner table, that she had choked on her food for a few short seconds. Ruby’s mother had known what the man was like before marrying him and did not wish to change him, but she did believe that children should not be corrupted by such language. That was something the parents disagreed on; Taiyang believed in conditioning his children for the real world, and Summer believed in coddling them. This caused many fights in the Xiao Long household.  
[Shift]  
The remaining episodes released without any major problems, but when that final episode was released, and Ruby’s name was in the credits, her friends and classmates were shocked that not only was Ruby in it, but so were Port and Oobleck. The teachers openly bragged about their parts as Sarge and Caboose respectively, but Ruby chose not to say much, if anything about her role as Simmons. Taiyang had also managed to rope one of Yang’s classmates; Sun into taking the role of Tucker, regardless of the fact that Taiyang had only met Sun a couple of times and had even said he didn't like the boy after listening to him ramble on about how he was into Blake and not Yang, just digging himself a deeper hole with each word that came out of his mouth. This was probably why he was casted as one of the characters Church—Taiyang’s character—didn't get along with. Sun’s character was a lot like Sun himself in the sense that he never knew when to shut up. This is also why Sun’s lines were always recorded last second due to the fact that Sun was physically incapable of keeping a secret.  
There was one other woman in the show, and she was played by the school’s assistant principal; Glynda Goodwitch. Taiyang had wanted Summer to play such a role, but Summer did not want her voice on a show where they cursed as much as they did. Summer was, after all, a police officer, and required the utmost respect from all those around her. Having her voice in the show might just tarnish that. Taiyang assured her that Tex was a woman just like herself, if just a little more violent. It was at this point that Summer seriously suggested Raven taking such a part, but Taiyang did not want to deal with the woman at any time other than when she payed him child support. Raven had refused any visitation for herself after the two’s divorce, but had agreed to pay him bimonthly. For some reason, however, she only ever payed in cash, and that did somewhat worry Taiyang that he was handling drug money.  
Soon after Taiyang’s conversation with his wife, Oobleck and Port brought the blonde man a replacement for Tex; their boss. The woman had been semi curious about voice acting and seemed to be quietly infatuated with Taiyang’s web series, but asked that he leave her name out of the credits in fear of losing her credibility with the school board.  
[Shift]  
The next few years of Ruby’s life went on like this; uneventful, while she continued doing lines for Simmons. The only major changes were that, not only did all the adults quit their jobs for Rooster Teeth, but they bought a small office on Buda. It was a one room office with an L desk in each corner. Ruby only ever visited on weekends and during the summer, where she would aid in their day-to-day work machinimating and what-not.  
Ruby had been told that once she graduated, she could come work with them if she wanted to, or she could go to college. She had already made her decision. She was close to graduating already, after years of RvB, she just had to wait a few more months.  
While Ruby didn't work in the office everyday like the others, she still went to conventions and fan meetups with them. She had already been to Vale, Menagerie, Vacuo, and Atlas because of Rooster Teeth, and there still was the possibility of going to many other places. Ruby had even managed to establish a friendship with one of the fans on the website; JauneArc was his username and full name. He was probably her best friend, even though she had only ever met him once, and didn't even remember the encounter. But Jaune insisted that she had signed his RvB DvD, even providing a picture of her signature. She regularly spoke to him over Skype, specifically while she played games on her Xbox.  
Jaune was two years older than Ruby and often spoke of moving from Vacuo to Patch just to work for Rooster Teeth, but Taiyang claimed they didn't need another person working for them at the moment, but as soon as they did, he'd call Jaune.  
When Ruby and Jaune first began talking, he asked her how working for Rooster Teeth was. She responded by telling him that the years she had played Simmons were the best of her life, and they were. She had been interviewed by news stations, from the likes of VNN, to Wolf News, and she had many stories to tell about the early years, were her father’s company to make it to ten years old.  
This time, as Ruby talked to Jaune, she had a stress weighing down on her. She tried not to let it show, but it must have been obvious to Jaune.  
“What’s wrong?” He asked. She mentally cursed and paused her game, turning to her computer.  
“I—I don’t know how to explain it.” She said, shaking with the thought of telling someone. “Besides, I really shouldn’t tell this to anyone outside of the company—not that I don’t trust you, it’s just… I don’t know…”  
“It’s okay, Ruby.” He said. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” The girl looked over at her bedroom door and quickly shut it, dashing back to her desk, she sighed.  
“I’m thinking about…” She stopped herself. “Promise me that you won’t tell anyone this!”  
“I promise.” He quickly said.  
“Thank you.” She continued. “I was thinking about leaving the company.” There was a bit of silence between the two of them before Jaune spoke.  
“Wow.” He said. “Why?”  
“I don’t know.” She said, the stress this was causing her evident in her voice. “I just feel like there’s more to life than playing video games with my dad and his friends, ya know?” Jaune was silent as he searched for the words to try and help his friend.  
“Ruby,” He said. “Most people would consider being able to be apart of your father’s company a dream come true. And to be honest, you have yet to really experience Rooster Teeth as a full time job—“  
“I know,” she said. “I know. But—I’ve always wanted to join the army.”  
“The army?!” Jaune asked, concern and shock evident in his shout. “You could get killed!”  
“You’re probably just worried about RvB.” She teased.  
“There are tons of people on the website who can do great impressions of you.” He said. “But none of them are you. If you joined the army and something happened to you, the world would have lost more than just a voice actress. I would lose a friend, your dad would lose a daughter, and the community would have lost the best member of Rooster Teeth.”  
“So you’re saying I shouldn’t do it?” She asked.  
“No.” Jaune told her. “I’m telling you that if this is what you really want, then you’d better not die.” Ruby chuckled a little, feeling the stress lifting from her shoulders.  
“Thank you, Jaune.” She said. “I’m gonna go talk to my dad about it right now.”  
[Shift]  
Ruby’s eyes scanned the post her father had made on the website, reading it and rereading it, waiting for the community to say something. Anything.  
“RT Community,” It read. “Ruby has just graduated high school and her mother and I are so proud of her. But Ruby’s time at Rooster Teeth is coming to an end. At least for now. A few months ago, Ruby, Summer and I had a talk about where she was going after high school. Ruby informed us that she felt she was being pulled away from this company for something she has always aspired towards; joining the army. I’m very proud of the young women my daughters have become, and I have made each of them the promise to always love and support them, no matter what. And that is what I will do for Ruby as she moves onto something better suiting herself. I hope she may one day return, but in the meantime; how will this affect RvB? We have spent the last few months writing and recording all of Ruby’s lines for the next few years, so don’t lose sleep over it. I won’t, I have a daughter in the army to lose sleep over.”  
Ruby refreshed the page again and five comments appeared. One person said “good riddance I hope your killing simmons”. Another said, “Noooooooo :(“ Ruby smiled, it felt good every time the community showed care for her and her family. Ruby read a couple similar comments before finding one that read; “Good luck, Ruby! The RT community is rooting for you, no matter what! Do everyone a favor and take care of yourself over there, we’d hate to have to raise an army in your remembrance.” Ruby chuckled at that one, small tears falling from her face. She had a huge smile on her face, and she really felt good about herself. She quickly replied to the comment, “Remembrance? If an army is being raised, I wanna lead it!” Ruby hit send and refreshed her page again, now there were hundreds of comments, and Ruby read them all. She replied to the countless comments, making sure everyone who sent her caring messages knew she had read them.


	3. Hero Of War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby comes home from the Army early and begins to readjust to llife at Rooster Teeth

Ruby sighed contently as she browsed her father’s website. It was thriving, even without her. That made her happy. It made her happy to know that her aspirations didn’t get in the way of any one else’s. Ruby told herself that when she finished her tour, she’d go back to her father’s company, but that was only if she made it out alive. There had been more fighting than Ruby had anticipated, and even though she signed up as a military journalist, she rarely did anything like that and spent most of her time as an actual soldier. She hadn’t seen much combat, but when she did see it, she somehow managed to keep calm.   
Ruby was safe from the fighting now. Now that she was back at the base in friendly territory, she even had an Internet connection. She usually used the connection just to go on the website and see what her father’s company was up to. A few advertisement gigs, and a few weird shows was all.   
For the first year or so of of her deployment, Ruby kept a journal on the website, updating it when she could just to let people know she was okay. But then she forgot about it for a few months and the community freaked out so much that Taiyang had to make a post letting everyone know that she wasn’t dead. After that, Ruby just kept to never posting to prevent another incident like that.   
[Shift]  
Ruby slowly strolled through the forest, following her sergeant carefully with the rest of her squad in tow.   
“Hey.” She whispered to her closest soldier.   
“Yeah?” He whispered back.  
“You ever wonder why we’re here?” She joked. He quietly laughed. Ruby knew he had seen the show and he knew her involvement in it. The two often joked about how she was just researching the role of Simmons, but Ruby wouldn’t call him a friend. She didn’t call any of the people in her squad her friends. She was too antisocial to make friends. Normally, Yang would force her to make friends, but Yang wasn’t there to help or protect her. Maybe that’s what made this all so scary to her. Her father couldn’t protect her. Her mother couldn’t. And her sister couldn’t. All the people who she had relied so heavily on were absent and she was left to fight and possibly die in a war she knew nothing about.   
Ruby was torn from her thoughts as she heard gunshots echoing through the forest. Her sergeant signaled for them all to stop, and they did, carefully raising their guns and scanning the tree line for any sign of movement. The shots were far off, but they could be snipers. Either way, it signaled the high probability of the enemy being nearby.  
Suddenly, there was another gun shot, a lot closer this time. The tree next to Ruby shot out bark and splinters, scratching her face as it flew towards her.   
“Down!” She shouted, dropping into a prone position. Ruby scanned the tree line with her rifle, looking for the shooter. Then she saw the reflection of the sun off the scope. She gasped when she realized it was pointed at her. She stood to run out of instinct, but was roughly thrown back down by a searing pain in her shoulder. Ruby had been shot. She grunted and put a hand over the wound, pressing down to slow to bleeding.   
“Rose is hit!” A faint voice called, sounding so close, but distant simultaneously.  
“Get her out of here!” Another voice shouted. It sounded the same as the last voice. Ruby began to notice that it was getting darker and darker out there, as her eyes slowly drifted shut.  
[Shift]  
When Ruby awoke, she found that the military no longer wanted her. Her arm was in a sling because of the bullet, so there wasn’t much she could really do to help out. So they just sent her home. Part of her was heartbroken that her tour had ended so quickly, but part of her was also proud that she had fought and gotten injured for her kingdom. The rest of her was just glad she hadn’t been killed.  
Ruby slowly climbed the stairs to her parents’ house, nervous and excited to see them again. They didn’t yet know she’d been shot, nor did they know she was coming home. She wanted to surprise them. It was a Saturday and both their cars were in the driveway, as well as Yang’s bike. The girl’s return had just so happened to land on Taiyang’s birthday, as well. She smiled, thinking of the joy she was about to bring him.   
Ruby slowly and loudly knocked on the door. She heard Summer shout, “I’ll get it!” Her smile grew as she heard the door unlock and saw the knob turn.   
Before Ruby had even seen the look on her mother’s face, she felt the woman pull her into a hug and pull her inside. She shushed Ruby and pointed to the kitchen, smiling. Summer knew Ruby’s plan and fully intended to help her.  
“Who was it?” Taiyang asked, hearing the door close.  
“It was the army.” Summer called back, quickly walking in the kitchen before Ruby could. Ruby hung back, hiding behind the wall and waiting for some kind of cue.   
“They didn’t have any bad news, did they?” Yang asked, sounding worried.  
“Oh no!” Summer quickly corrected. “No bad news! They just wanted to deliver a birthday present to your father.” Ruby took this as her cue and stepped into the kitchen. She felt Yang and Taiyang quickly embrace her. She laughed, glad to be home.  
“You’re home early!” Her father happily exclaimed, as he and Yang both pulled out of the hug.  
“Yeah,” Ruby said. “For good.”   
“Why?” Yang asked. Ruby motioned to the sling her arm was resting in.  
“I got shot.” She boredly said.   
“You’re alive and you have all your limbs,” Taiyang happily said. “That’s all that matters to me!”  
[Shift]  
Ruby slowly typed at her computer, only really being able to use one hand because of her sling. It was frustrating, but the girl knew she was lucky to be alive. And that she’d be out of that sling soon. She had finally taken her father up on his job offer, and even had her own desk now. She sat next to Blake, one of the friends she shared with Yang throughout high school. Blake had been hired just after Ruby left for the military. The ninth hired. And—as Blake would sometimes joke—the first that was useful. The faunas had actually worked her way up to becoming one of Ruby’s best friends, and really her only friend at Rooster Teeth. Their desks were side by side, but they each had L shaped desks, so the room was accidentally arranged in rows. Ruby was on the end. Then Blake, then Sun, Oobleck, Port, and finally Qrow. Taiyang had his own little office and there were others about who either didn’t have a desk, or just worked somewhere else in the office.   
“Settle a bet for me.” Blake said, spinning her chair so that she was seated at the extra part of Ruby’s desk.  
“Not now, Blake.” Ruby said, not even looking at the faunas. “I have a lotta work to do and it’s hard to figure out what my job is when I can only type with one hand.”  
“I’ll help you if you answer my question.” Blake offered. Ruby immediately turned.   
“Shoot.”   
“Why do you have a different last name from everyone else in your family?” She asked.  
“I don’t. My last name is Rose-Xiao-Long, but no one can pronounce Xiao-Long, so I just go by Rose. Always have.” Ruby quickly answered. Blake slowly stood and stretched before walking around to see what Ruby was doing so she could help.   
“What’re you trying to do?” Blake asked.  
“I don’t even know what my job is, Blake.” Ruby told her.  
“Ruby,” Blake disappointedly said. “You’ve been working here a week. How do you not know what your job is?”   
“I know what it is, I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do!” Ruby shot back. “I’m like a public relations person, whatever that means.” Blake sighed.  
“It means you just interact with the community.” The faunas said, walking back over to her desk. Answer questions, make announcements when a new episode comes out. It’s easy!”   
“Oh.” Ruby felt stupid for not understanding her job at first, but just turned back to her computer and got to work. There wasn’t much she could do on the website, as she would have to use her own account on there, and Taiyang had told her that he wanted her return to be suddenly revealed in the first episode of his new podcast. So, the girl just logged into the company’s twitter. They all knew the login, but it was seldom used for anything other than announcing that a new episode of RvB was out. That didn’t stop the community from following them on there.   
She opened a second tab and read over her father’s latest journal post, announcing the podcast. It was long winded, and Twitter wasn’t for the long winded. Ruby quickly selected the button enabling her to make a tweet and typed, “In celebration of our 5th birthday, we’ll be starting a podcast next Monday!” She then copy and pasted the link to Taiyang’s post and clicked “Tweet”.   
[Shift]  
Ruby, Blake and Taiyang all sat on one leather couch. Each of them had a microphone on the small coffee table in front of them.   
“Get comfortable,” Taiyang told them. “No excessive couch noises.” He paused for a moment. “I gotta pee already.” The podcast had already started however, so he couldn’t really go.  
“Pee break.” Blake quickly cut in.  
“How’s it make you feel to know that Menagerie’s greatest hero got beat up by a scrawny, Atlesian dude?” Ruby asked. Blake politely chuckled.  
“I don’t keep up with that stuff.” She said. “Didn’t he also get beat up by some stripper?” Ruby laughed. “She put him in some fishnet stockings and high heels and made him drive around real fast on a motorcycle.”  
“Ya know I was at a bar,” Taiyang said. “Watching the uh, championship game and they were showing the Dalerojo fight and most of the people in the bar did not know of the Oscar Dalerojo mistress incident. And Qrow kept making me go around with my scroll and show people the pictures. Eventually, I was like, ‘fuck it, I’m not gonna walk up to Dalerojo fans on the night of a fight and show them pictures of their idol in fishnet stockings and talking about being…” Taiyang started laughing and Blake interjected.  
“Well, he looked good.” Ruby and Taiyang chuckled and both agreed.  
“You’re lucky somebody didn’t put you down for a siesta.” Ruby joked.  
“I read up a little on that and read that the woman who took those photos recanted and said they were fake.” Blake noted. “But later she said she did so under duress. She said some muscle guys came and roughed her up and told her to say that.”  
“Is that true?” Ruby asked.  
“Yeah.” Blake said.  
“Under duress.” Taiyang randomly said.  
“They were like,” Ruby said. “No es bueno, senorita!”  
“I like that a professional fighter has to hire guys to rough people up.” Taiyang noted. “He can’t go and rough up some girl himself?”  
“He’s obviously a girly man.” Blake said. “You’ve seen the photos, right?”  
“You can say whatever you want to—!” Taiyang was suddenly interrupted by Ruby.  
“I’m gonna go out on a limb right now and say that Blake could beat up Oscar Dalerojo.” She said. “And I challenge him to fight Blake.”  
“Have you ever been in a fight, Blake?” Taiyang asked.  
“No. I got punched in the face once.” She told him.  
“Who punched you in the face?” Ruby asked.  
“That was as close as I’ve come.”  
“Who punched you in the face?”   
“Weiss.”   
“Oh?” Ruby asked. “The chick who can’t pass the bar?”  
“Yeah.” They both chuckled. “Who’s laughing now!”   
“Allegedly?” Tai added. “So why’d she punch you in the face?”  
“Uh,” Blake thought for a moment. “I don’t remember. I said something about her mother. We were like twelve.”  
“Did she need a stepladder?” Ruby asked. “Cause you were like three feet taller than her. Did she do like the Mighty Mouse?”   
“It was in like sixth grade. We were both just like four feet tall.” Blake corrected.  
“She hasn’t gotten any taller.” Ruby added.  
“She has not.”  
“What about you?” Taiyang asked. “You ever been punched in the face? Been in a fight? Anything like that?”   
“Many times.” Ruby responded. “Been in a lotta fights.”   
“Why?” Tai asked.  
“I was in the army.” She said. “Been in a lotta fights in the army.”  
“Ya shot stuff.” Blake added.  
“I did shoot stuff.” Ruby laughed. “Never been in any fights over shooting stuff. Been in two drive by shootings though!”  
“Nice.”  
“I’ve had a gun pointed at me twice.” Taiyang said.  
“I was on the receiving end.” Ruby said. “I haven’t shot anyone. Why would you have a gun pulled on you?”  
“It was two weird circumstances.” Tai said. “One was by an off duty cop.”   
“Was it Mom?” Ruby chuckled. Tai laughed.   
“It’s how we met, actually.” He joked. “And I just had a gun pointed at me at a party. Just some random guy who was sleeping in the corner in a sleeping bag, and people had been giving him a hard time about that all night, and I kinda joined in on giving the guy a hard time, and I guess he wanted to put an end to it, so he pulled a revolver out of his sleeping bag and he pointed at me.”  
“Did it put an end to it?” Ruby asked.  
“It put an end to it for me, yeah!” He said.  
“This was at a party?” She asked.  
“Yeah.”  
“Did you then leave the party or did you like go in the other room and try to forget about it?” She asked.  
“I went in the other room, drank some beer and forgot about it.” He told her. “Why would I leave? Just put as many bodies between me and the bullet as possible.”  
“It’s a revolver you said, “Blake added. “There’s only like six bullets in there. Probably way more than six people at the party. You’re okay.”   
“Why was a dude with a gun and a sleeping bag at a party anyway?” Ruby asked.  
“Attention, probably.” Tai said. “I’m sure you of all people should know the difference between getting a gun pointed at you and getting a gun pointed at you.”  
“Yeah,” Ruby said. “That’s actually the last thing I remember about the army.”  
“What?” Tai asked. “Getting a gun pointed at you?”  
“Yup.”   
“Oh, yeah,” He said. “That’s right. You did get shot, didn’t you?”   
“Yyup.”   
“Let me ask you a question,” Taiyang asked. “I know you’re good with this kinda stuff. What kind of gun was it?”   
“Uh,” Ruby thought for a moment. “Something long range. Probably like a rifle with a telescope taped to it.” She laughed.   
“Did it hurt?” Blake asked. Ruby was silent for a moment, while Taiyang laughed hysterically.  
“No, Blake.” Ruby sarcastically said. “It didn’t hurt. In fact, it felt really good. It felt so good that me and my buddies are gonna go down by the lake this weekend and take turns shooting each other in the arm. Of course it hurt, Blake!” Taiyang was dying of laughter now. Once he calmed down, Tai quickly started another conversation.  
“That reminds me.” He said. “If you’re new to Rooster Teeth, you may not recognize our lovely voices. Specifically Ruby’s. Ruby is my youngest daughter and she’s been gone for what? Two years now?”  
“Two years.” Ruby repeated.  
“She works here now, but before she left for the army, she voiced Simmons on the popular web series, Red Vs Blue. Now that she’s back, we can do a season six!”   
“Oh, boy.” Ruby said, her voice lacking enthusiasm. She was obviously kidding, however. She loved RvB.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, That was chapter 3. Focuses a lot on Ruby’s return to Rooster Teeth and the start of the podcast. Might be a AH Rap Battle reference in there somewhere, letting you know who I modeled certain characters after.


	4. It’s My Life

The fans were more excited to see Ruby’s return than Ruby would have thought. Sure, there were newer fans who had no clue who she was, but a vast majority of the community did remember her.   
But that wasn’t why Ruby was excited. She was excited because her best friend from before the army was finally moving to Patch to work with Rooster Teeth. Taiyang had left to go pick the boy up from the airport, but was bound to be back at the office soon. Ruby could barely focus on her work, but it wasn’t like there was much for her to be doing at the moment, so she was really just playing Xbox and waiting for something to do on the website or Twitter. The Xbox 360 had released not too long before Ruby got out of the army, and it had this cool new feature that Ruby was in love with; achievements. She had gotten into many Achievement races with her father over the past couple months. She usually won, but only because she would take days off work to win these competitions. He usually couldn’t or wouldn’t. Winning was a great pleasure for Ruby, because her father would always bet copious amounts of cash on her losing. The last bet they had was that Ruby couldn’t earn 10k gamerscore in a week, after she had claimed it would be easy. He told her that she would get a dollar for every point past 9k. Ruby went ape and got 15k, but the man was true to his word, and he paid her the six grand. Oddly enough, Summer didn’t mind that her husband was spending thousands, gambling against their daughter. Probably because she knew what Ruby was planning to do with the money. The girl had found a small house for eight grand and already had enough money for a down payment. In fact, she was going to close on the house after work today. But no one knew that but her.   
Ruby suddenly got a text from her father, “Package secured.” It read.   
“Awesome!” She sent back. “Gonna call you to talk about something.”  
“You’re not pregnant, are you?” He asked. Before she could respond, he sent another text. “Who I gotta kill?”  
“It’s nothing like that!” Ruby assured him. She quickly called him before he could send another text. She stood from her desk and stepped outside. He answered as soon as she closed the door behind her. She heard the car door close.  
“Just a sec.” He said. She knew he was putting her on speaker so he could drive. She didn’t mind. “Alright,” He said. “What’s up?”  
“Well, I know there’s been an issue of where Jaune’s gonna live while he works here.” She said.  
“Uh huh.”  
“Well, I may have found a place.” She was nervous. She remembered the conversation he had with Yang when she moved out, and the conversation she had with him when she told him she was joining the army.   
“Really?” It was good hearing Jaune’s voice after all these years. She hadn’t meant to lose contact with him, but it had happened nonetheless.   
“Get back in the trunk!” Taiyang suddenly shouted. They all laughed.   
“But yeah,” Ruby said. “I figured he could just stay with me until he finds his own place.”   
“Yeah, Rubes.” Tai said. “That was the plan already. He’d be staying with us in Yang’s room.”  
“That’s not what I meant.” Ruby told her father. He took a deep breath. “I’m closing on my own place tonight and I’ve never exactly been on my own beforeandit’skindascaryandyouknowhowIdon’tlikebeingalone.” She quickly spit out. There was silence for a moment before Taiyang said something.  
“This is platonic though, right?” He joked. He seemed completely fine with it, surprising Ruby.  
“Yeah.” Ruby answered. “You’re not upset?”  
“Why would I be upset?” He asked.   
“Because you flipped your shit when Yang told you she did the same thing. And she got an apartment, I got a house!” Ruby’s nervousness was showing now, but she didn’t really care.   
“Well,” Taiyang said. “Yang bought an apartment in Vale, and is living by herself in the city. You’re presumably staying in Patch and you’re going to have a dual income to support the house, so no. I’m not upset and I’m most certainly not worried.”   
“Wow,” Ruby said. “You’re smarter than you act.”  
“I know.” Taiyang told her.   
“Whoa.” Jaune said. “So, I’m going to be living and working with my best friend and idol.”  
“Remember this word, kid.” Taiyang told him. “Platonic. Fuck my daughter and I’ll fire you.”   
“Dad,” Ruby said. “Jaune couldn’t convince his hand to have sex with him.” Taiyang began hysterically laughing at this.   
“I’m gonna fucking crash.” He wheezed.   
[Shift]  
After the two hung up, Ruby saw her father’s car pulling into the parking lot. When the two blonde men stepped out, Ruby was surprised to see that Jaune wasn’t tall like she thought he’d be, but he also wasn’t short either. He was just in the middle.   
Jaune on the other hand, was rather surprised to see just how short the girl was. He had expected her to be a lot taller.  
“Aren’t you a little short to be a soldier?” He joked. Ruby furrowed her eyebrows in a fake angry face.  
“Well, he’s right.” Taiyang added.  
“Fair enough.” She said.   
The next week or so went by without incident. Ruby and Jaune moved into the three bedroom house, but couldn’t yet afford any furniture beyond what Ruby got from her parents. Jaune had spent all his money on his move to Patch from Vacuo, so he couldn’t help, and she had spent all her money on the house. Luckily, Ruby still had her car from high school, so they didn’t need to worry about transportation.   
[Shift]  
Jaune stepped out of his room, making a beeline for the kitchen to refill his glass of soda. He glanced into the house’s living room, where Ruby sat. They had just recently saved up enough to buy a nice TV and a sectional couch. Ruby was playing some game on the TV, trying to get some achievement as she always was. She suddenly paused the game and looked down to her laptop. She tapped away at the keyboard, and once she stopped, he groaned in frustration.   
“What the frick!” She shouted. Jaune chuckled at this outburst, alerting Ruby of his presence. “This is bull crap!” She shouted, now turned to face him. “I just cannot find a good guide for this achievement!”  
“I’ve seen plenty of good guides.” Jaune commented. Ruby scoffed.  
“I’m a visual person, Jaune.” She said. “Half the time I don’t understand what they’re trying to tell me here. Someone needs to make a website with video achievement guides!” Jaune was just absentmindedly refilling his cup as he prepared for the incoming rant. “We should do that!” She suddenly said. “Me and you! We could create video achievement guides!” Jaune stopped her before she could go any further.   
“Sorry, Ruby,” He said. “But I can’t. Your dad wants me to direct RvB this season. Maybe after we wrap, we could try that.” Ruby sighed and turned back to her laptop, before suddenly perking up.   
“I know!” She said. “The only person who has even less to do than I do at the company!” Jaune retreated back to his room and Ruby picked up the phone and made a call. The person answered rather quickly.  
“Yes, Ruby?” Blake asked.  
“I just had the best idea.” Ruby told her. “And you’re gonna help me.”   
“Okay?” Blake said, not really asking, just more so confused.  
“Meet me at the usual place. We can talk about it there,” Ruby told her. She was talking about the place where they often went to lunch together. “You’re not gonna regret this, Blake! This is going to carve you into the permanent history of the company, I guarantee it!” Ruby hung up and happily grabbed her keys, practically bolting out the door with a huge smile on her face.   
[Shift]   
When Ruby and Blake finally arrived at the restaurant, they weren’t surprised to see that it was mostly empty. It was a local restaurant it was nine o’clock at night on a Saturday. Ruby knew they closed in two hours, but that they’d be almost empty from eight to eleven. She would often come there by herself when she’d accidentally forget to eat.   
They were seated almost immediately, and they both ordered rather quickly. Ruby knew that Blake was nocturnal on the weekends, so this was practically breakfast for the faunas. Once the waiter left, Ruby began to explain her idea to Blake, who seemed to think it was a good idea.   
“I mean,” Blake began. “There’s definitely gotta be a market for this sort of thing. I can see it being extremely successful, especially if we post these guides on both YouTube and the site.” Ruby shook her head.  
“We’re getting our own site.” She told Blake.  
“I thought you said that this would be good for Rooster Teeth.” Blake said.   
“Yeah.” Ruby said. “It’s called ‘branching out’. We’d post the guides on the RT YouTube channel, but we’d have our own website, so that we’d be separate from RT, but not really.”   
“I think I get what you’re saying.”  
“Good, because you and I need to work on a pitch for this.”  
“Alright. What’s our deadline?”   
“I’d like to get the first guide posted by the end of the month.” Blake nodded. It was the twenty-first but she knew Taiyang, and he would let Ruby try whatever she wanted. Especially something that could do nothing but good for the company.   
“I’ll register a domain and start building the website when I get home.” She told Ruby. “I think we could have this up and running by the twenty-eighth.”  
“Of July?” Ruby asked, in disbelief that Blake could work that quickly.  
“Yeah,” The faunas said. “I’ll have a website and a guide ready in a week. You just have to convince Taiyang.”   
“No problem.” Ruby told her.   
The pair talked about their new site for another hour, coming up with a name and everything. They were going to call their new branch; Achievement Hunter.


	5. Empire State Of Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Achievement Hunter steps into its final stages of creation!

Guns N’ Roses’ Paradise City played as the Rooster Teeth logo appeared. Underneath that, it read, “Achievement Hunter Presents”  
This screen faded away, and more text appeared, “The greatest video game achievement walk through in the history of mankind.” Text faded in underneath it, “For reals.”  
As the drums began, that screen faded away, showing the main menu for Burnout: Paradise. The music faded, and more text appeared atop the menu. “Millionaire's club Guide.” It said  
“Alright, guys.” Blake said. “Blake here with a Millionaire's Club achievement guide for you in Burnout: Paradise.” She paused, and Guns N’ Roses could be faintly heard. “This is a fairly easy achievement to get. But let's do it in style and get it in one shot. So a million points in one stunt run.”  
The menu faded away and the map could be seen on the screen. “The location we’re starting at is the one south, just before the bridges.” Ruby and Blake nervously watched Taiyang as he watched their first video. They had spent some time on it together with Blake doing all the recording and Ruby doing the editing. Tai was hard to read as he watched. He was sitting back in his chair with a blank look on his face and his arms crossed.   
Once the video ended, Taiyang leaned forward and wordlessly opened another tab. He went onto the website and created a new journal post. Ruby was dying of nervousness when she finally spoke up.  
“What do you think?” She asked. He turned in his chair.   
“I think you two need to clean off your desks.” He told them. Ruby’s heart skipped a beat before he continued. “Because you can’t be doing achievement guides out there.” He motioned to the area where everyone worked. He chuckled a little when he saw them ease up. Ruby lightly kicked him. “I deserved that.” He added with a laugh. “But seriously; you two could do some serious good for the company with this. Go ahead and upload that first guide to the YouTube channel as well as the site. I’ll make a journal post and then you guys can have my office until we move into the new place.” Ruby was smiling ear to ear now. And Blake—who rarely smiled—was just grinning.  
“Thanks, Dad!” Ruby said gleefully. “You’re the best!”   
“I know.” He said as Blake retrieved her hard drive and the two began towards the door. “Ya know what?” He asked himself. “Why don’t you do the honors and make the journal post yourself, Rubes? It is your project, after all.”  
“Will do!” Ruby said as she and Blake left.  
[Shift]  
In all her excitement, Ruby had completely missed her father’s statement about a new building. She only realized what he had said the next day, as she and Blake were getting set up in Taiyang’s old office.   
“Did Dad say we’re moving into a new place soon?” Ruby asked Blake, sitting down at her new desk. The desk was a pure glossy white, and unlike her desk out in the work area, this one was not an L shape. It had previously been Taiyang’s desk, but he was now out in the communal work area, so he no longer needed it. On the desk was a small, 24 inch TV atop her Xbox 360 and beside it was an iMac.   
Blake had to go out and buy a new desk, and the two had just spent a couple of hours putting it together. Taiyang had of course walked in and began filming them for “Sponsor content” as he called it. He didn’t film the whole thing, of course. He simply asked Ruby and Blake a few questions about Achievement Hunter. Ruby just simply told him that it was achievement guides and that’s it. Ruby and Blake had no interest in branching out from making informative gaming videos and doubted they ever would.   
Ruby’s desk was closest to the door and Blake’s was pressed against the wall. Nestled between the two’s desks was a wall mounted TV for recording audio. Underneath the TV was a small, metallic bookshelf with four microphones sitting on it. On the wall opposite to the bookshelf was the couch they usually recorded the podcast on. Taiyang was planning on buying new microphones and setting them up in the conference room for that, so he let them have the old microphones.  
“Yup.” Blake simply said, carefully setting a monitor down on her new desk. “Didn’t you read the email he sent out?” Ruby shook her head. “God, You’re incorrigible.” Blake sighed. Before the raven haired faunas could say much more, Ruby turned to her computer and logged into her email. Her silver eyes carefully scanned the email, and she saw that he had already purchased a place, but would be making renovations to it before they moved in.   
Ruby wanted to visit the new place, but really didn’t have time. She had a meeting later to talk about the further details of Achievement Hunter. Blake had somehow gotten out of the meeting, telling Taiyang that she needed to continue setting up in the new office and he had agreed to let her stay behind. Ruby checked the time and groaned.  
“Time for your meeting?” Blake teasingly asked. Ruby glared at her. “Relax.” The faunas said. “They’re just going to show you a few logos, suggest a few things and then turn you loose.”   
The redhead wordlessly left the room, causing Blake to chuckle to herself as the door closed.  
Ruby began walking to the opposite side of the office, where the conference room was. She could see Oobleck, Qrow and her father each entering the room. She understood why Oobleck was there, as he was in charge of marketing, but was confused as to why Qrow was there. ‘Probably just to keep himself busy,’ she thought to herself. She had no clue what Qrow actually did at the company, but didn’t let it trouble her too much as she entered the conference room and they all took their seats.  
“Alright,” Taiyang said. “For clarification purposes, this is a meeting regarding the upload schedule, structure and logo of Achievement Hunter.”  
The rest, as they say; is history.


End file.
